External Monitor Problem: Fuzzy Pictures

vegasnewbie wrote on 7/11/2004, 2:17 PM

I use my camcorder as an external monitor, and although it works well most of the time, I have noticed that, since I upgraded to Vegas 5, the picture often changes from being quite sharply in focus to being quite fuzzy. I have noticed that this picture degradation happens to any clips that have been stretched to slow down the movement and to clips where there is a title in another video track. The final output is OK, so what is happening with the firewire out?

Is there any way of correcting this problem? Thanks for your help.

Regards, Rob

Comments

kentwolf wrote on 7/11/2004, 2:25 PM

Make sure your preview window is set to "Best-Full."

I had this once too not realizing that the setting of the Vegas preview determined the firewire out quality.

rmack350 wrote on 7/11/2004, 5:20 PM

Usually "Good" is just fine. Best adds bicubic interpolation which makes resizing and track motion look better. However, it's a slower and more cpu intensive method.

If Bicubic interpolation isn't required, good and best are identical.

Rob Mack

Spot|DSE wrote on 7/11/2004, 6:44 PM

Usually Preview/Full is just fine for viewing as well, particularly on external. Be aware that if you use Preview/Auto and you size the preview window down smaller than 320, you get pixelation due to the way the media is being sampled. Use FULL in anything but best if you are sizing that window down small. (I do, on my desktop. Keeps it out of my way.)

vegasnewbie wrote on 7/12/2004, 12:56 AM

Thanks very much for these replies. In my case, I agree with "kentwolf" that the preview window does need to be set to "Best Full" and not "Best Auto" if you are running an external monitor. When this was done, the fuzzy video became clear again, strange really!

Regards, Fred

Spot|DSE wrote on 7/12/2004, 7:46 AM

If you are seeing 'fuzzy' video while using Preview/Full, then there is something amiss. It is softer, but you'll also not see any reasonable framerate while in Best mode if you've done anything to the media or added overlays, and editing will be painful. In all but the deepest views, we keep everything set to Preview/Full, and that's just fine. I'm assuming you're working with DV?

vegasnewbie wrote on 7/12/2004, 1:22 PM

Thanks Spot for your help. The options available for viewing video are: Draft, Preview, Good, and Best. You can select either "auto" or "best" for each of these options. What I have learned is that, if you select "auto" for any of the options, the fuzzy picture problem arises, even with "best" "auto". However, the problem does not arise when you select the "full" option. I had assumed that "best" "auto" would give a good picture on an external monitor, but you need to select "best" "full". "Preview" "Full" also gives a satisfactory picture as you say, but "preview" "auto" does not.

Regards, Fred

Spot|DSE wrote on 7/12/2004, 2:17 PM

Exactly. Preview/Full may be hidden beneath other docking windows if you wish, and you'll get the external monitor looking clean. Setting to Best/Full will slow your external framerate down significantly, hence the reason for staying at Preview/Full in nearly all situations. BTW, using Draft/Full will only pixelate on filtered or modified footage, and is great for rough-setting comp positions while maintaining speed.